Artificial incubation and hatching of embryos of the red swamp crayfish Procambarus clarkii (Decapoda: Cambaridae)

抄録

We studied the artificial incubation method of red swamp crayfish Procambarus clarkii embryos using cell culture plates. In the first experiment, cleavage stage embryos or egg-nauplius stage embryos were individually cultured at 20°C in the well of cell culture plates with different water volumes per well [12 well (4 ml), 24 well (2 ml), 48 well (1 ml) and 96 well (0.25 ml)]. In the second experiment, egg-nauplius stage embryos were cultured using 12-well plates at 15, 20 and 25°C. Almost all cleavage stage embryos died without hatching. Egg-nauplius stage embryos survived to hatch. In the 96-well plates, the embryo hatched, but all first instar juveniles died soon. In other plates, the mortality of the first instar juveniles tended to increase with decreasing culture water volume; particularly, high mortality was recorded in the 48-well plates. Hatching and moulting rates were high at 15°C and 20°C, but approximately half of the first instar juveniles died at 25°C. We concluded that a 12-well cell culture plate (4 ml per well) is suitable for incubating P. clarkii embryos to hatch and the first instar juveniles to moult to the second instar at 15–20°C.